1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to wireless communications. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and system for opting in to a mobile marketing campaign.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of mobile phones, handsets and other wireless devises is becoming a primary means for individuals to stay connected in their personal and professional lives. Mobile handsets and other wireless devised are being targeted by businesses to aid in their marketing efforts, delivering specific content directly to prospective customers. The challenge in any mobile marketing campaign is getting individuals to perform a mobile opt-in that is compliant with the Mobile Marketing Association (“MMA”) guidelines for mobile advertising which requires that mobile communication device users opt-in to receive digital communications related to a mobile marketing campaign. Mobile Marketing as defined by the MMA is “a set of practices that enables organizations to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device or network.” The MMA guidelines require the individual to initiate the opt-in sequence from the device where marketing messages will be delivered. This is normally accomplished by enticing the end user to text a code to a service shortcode or phone number. Alternately, the process can be initiated by having the individual enter their mobile phone number on a web site and then sending a message to that phone number asking them to confirm a desire to receive marketing messages. The problem with both of these methods is complexity and number of steps.
The prior art discusses various technologies related to companies communicating with personal mobile communication devices.
Vogel et al., U.S. Patent Publication Number 2010/0124937 for a Method Of Customer Relationship Management Using A Short Range Communications Network discloses a customer subscribing to a service from a business entity and receiving communications when the customer's BLUETOOTH device is detected within a certain range.
Harris et al, U.S. Pat. No. 7,920,850 for a Method And System For A Hospitality Entity To Communicate Goods And Services To A Guest discloses a customer opt-in in to a service from a business entity to receive discounts on goods and services from the business entity.
Puranik et al, U.S. Patent Publication Number 2004/171380 for Opt-In Pinging And Tracking For GPS Mobile Telephones discloses a method and system for a user to opt-in to being tracked through the GPS device of the user's mobile phone.
Berrey et al., U.S. Patent Publication Number 2007/0073808 for a Mobile Messaging System discloses delivering messages directly to a client from an enterprise regardless of the client's communication provider.
Pousti, U.S. Patent Publication Number 2008/0287095 for Systems And Methods For Generation, Registration And Mobile Phone Billing Of A Network-Enabled Application With One-Time Opt-In discloses one time opt-in for pre-authorization of charges to a mobile phone account for videos and songs.
Berezin et al., U.S. Patent Publication Number 2010/0121709 for an Invitation-Based Viral Advertising discloses opt-in form for viral distribution of advertising.
Liebowitz et al, U.S. Patent Publication Number 2006/0258399 for Interactive Opt-In Messaging discloses a method and system for a user to opt-in for receiving messages to the user's mobile phone wherein the user calls a number for a solicitation in the message.
Fotta et al., U.S. Patent Publication Number 2007/0136789 for a System And Method For Integrated Compliance And Contact Management discloses opt-in for one or more communication contact types based on a set of mediation rules.
Talisma Corporation, PCT Publication Number WO2010018472, for A Method To Drive A Campaign Workflow Based On A Short Message Service Message Response discloses generating and sending appropriate messages based on users responses to a marketing campaign.
General definitions for terms utilized in the pertinent art are set forth below.
GSM, Global System for Mobile Communications is a second generation digital cellular network.
Code Division Multiple Access (“CDMA”) is a spread spectrum communication system used in second generation and third generation cellular networks, and is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,307.
Long Term Evolution (“LTE”) is a next generation communication network.
Interactive voice response (“IVR”) is a telephone technology in which a user uses a phone to interact with a database to acquire information.
Short Message Service (“SMS”) is text messaging communication using a mobile phone or other device to send messages up to 160 characters in length.
Multimedia messaging service (“MMS”) communication is a communication transmitted to and from a mobile phone that includes a multimedia content such as a digital photograph (JPEG), videos, and the like.
A SMS Gateway is used to send text messages with or without a mobile phone, and is used by aggregators to forward text messages to mobile phones.
BLUETOOTH technology is a standard short range radio link that operates in the unlicensed 2.4 gigaHertz band.
Mobile Originated (“MO”) is a text message that is sent from a mobile phone.
Mobile Terminated (“MT”) is a text message that is sent to a mobile phone.
Public Switch Telephone Network (“PSTN”) is a telecommunication system in which networks are inter-connected to allow telephones to communicate with each other throughout the world.
Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) of 1991 restricts the use of SMS text messages received by mobile phones, and SMS messages sent without a consumer's consent can violate the TCPA.
APP is a software application for a mobile phone such as a smart phone.
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”) is a set of conventions for controlling the transfer of information via the Internet from a web server computer to a client computer, and also from a client computer to a web server.
Internet is the worldwide, decentralized totality of server computers and data-transmission paths which can supply information to a connected and browser-equipped client computer, and can receive and forward information entered from the client computer.
FTP or File Transfer Protocol is a protocol for moving files over the Internet from one computer to another.
Short message peer-to-peer (“SMPP”) is a telecommunications protocol for exchanging SMS messages between SMS peer entities.
Simple object access protocol (“SOAP”) is a computer network protocol for exchanging information.
Simple mail transfer protocol (“SMTP”) is a delivery protocol for email.
Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (“TCP/IP”) is a protocol for moving files over the Internet.
A SMS aggregator is an entity that provides connectivity with a mobile phone carrier by offering a SMS gateway to send and receive messages and other digital content.
Application Programming Interface (API) is a collection of computer software code, usually a set of class definitions, that can perform a set of related complex tasks, but has a limited set of controls that may be manipulated by other software-code entities. The set of controls is deliberately limited for the sake of clarity and ease of use, so that programmers do not have to work with the detail contained within the given API itself.
Direct Inward Dialing (“DID”) involves a carrier providing one or more trunk lines to a customer for connection to the customer's private branch exchange (“PBX”) and a range of telephone lines are allocated to this line.
Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) relates to communications transmitted over the Internet such as SKYPE.
URL or Uniform Resource Locator is an address on the World Wide Web.
User Interface or UI is the junction between a user and a computer program. An interface is a set of commands or menus through which a user communicates with a program. A command driven interface is one in which the user enter commands. A menu-driven interface is one in which the user selects command choices from various menus displayed on the screen.
Web-Browser is a complex software program, resident in a client computer, that is capable of loading and displaying text and images and exhibiting behaviors as encoded in HTML (HyperText Markup Language) from the Internet, and also from the client computer's memory. Major browsers include MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER, NETSCAPE, APPLE SAFARI, MOZILLA FIREFOX, and OPERA.
Web-Server is a computer able to simultaneously manage many Internet information-exchange processes at the same time. Normally, server computers are more powerful than client computers, and are administratively and/or geographically centralized. An interactive-form information-collection process generally is controlled from a server computer, to which the sponsor of the process has access.
CRM is a widely-implemented strategy for managing a company's interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. CRM involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes and the like—principally sales activities, but also business processes and the like for marketing, customer service and technical support.
Wireless Application Protocol (“WAP”) is an open, global specification that empowers users with mobile wireless communication devices (such as mobile phones) to easily access data and to interact with Websites over the Internet through such mobile wireless communication device. WAP works with most wireless communication networks such as CDPD, CDMA, GSM, PDC, PHS, TDMA, FLEX, reflex, iDEN, TETRA, DECT, DataTAC, Mobitex and GRPS. WAP can be built on most operating systems including PalmOS, WINDOWS, CE, FLEXOS, OS/9, JavaOS and others.
WAP Push is defined as an encoded WAP content message delivered (pushed) to a mobile communication device which includes a link to a WAP address.
It is sufficiently difficult enough for an enterprise to motivate end-users to participate in a mobile marketing campaign. The complexity of the current opt-in processes further discourages users and reduces the number of participants in mobile marketing campaigns. What is needed is a simple and easy process to allow end-users (e.g. mobile marketing campaign participants) to opt-in to receive digital communications from an enterprise.